New York Times calls for escalation of the "good war" in Afghanistan

Typical of the Times’s pronouncements on US policy in Iraq and Central Asia, the editorial criticizes the Bush administration for its inept prosecution of a neo-colonial strategy, while implicitly solidarizing itself with the underlying and unstated aims that animate that strategy.

“The battle against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies is still winnable,” the newspaper writes, “and it is vital to American security.” This is all the editorial has to say about the motives that underlay the October 2001 invasion and the ongoing US-led occupation of the country.

“American security,” explains nothing. Rather, it conceals the real war aims of the US intervention. The Times feels no obligation to present a serious justification for the war. Indeed, it feels free to designate it as the “good war” because within all factions of the political establishment and its media organs it is universally accepted that, whatever one may say about the war in Iraq, the invasion of Afghanistan was the unquestionably justified response to the 9/11 attacks and the legitimate and necessary starting point of the global “war on terrorism.”